Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

On June 14, 1777, the Stars and Stripes were adopted as our Nation’s flag. This national symbol was the subject of Francis Scott Key’s hymn during the War of 1812 that would later become our national anthem.

On this Flag Day, perhaps we might consider how best to celebrate the freedoms that the flag represents. America is in some sense an exceptional Nation, for what joins us all is not a common blood, but rather a willingness to leave our homelands so that we might live free of the tyranny of political oppression or poverty.

It is the sense of adventure, as well as the unwavering commitment to freedom, that binds Africans, Asians, Europeans and Latin Americans to one another. It just takes a walk in Flushing Meadows Park or Prospect Park to notice the many faces of people, who, in some cases, are enemies in other parts of the world but live peacefully as neighbors here in New York.

Read the full text of the Bishop’s column on The Tablet website.